BWG wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2019.

BWG wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2019.

BWG wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2019.

BWG wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2019.

Successful start of production of HYDRO‘s new Automotive Line 3 for the cost effective production of premium car body sheets

BWG as principal equipment supplier introduces major new technical developments

After the successful and on schedule processing of the first saleable coil in October 2016, Automotive Line 3 of aluminum producer HYDRO in Grevenbroich was officially inaugurated in a festive ceremony in May 2017. For an investment of approximately 130 million €, HYDRO significantly increased its production capacity by 150,000 t per year. Together with Automotive Line 2, supplied by BWG in 2008 and upgraded in 2014, HYDRO can now reach a total output of 200,000 t of car body sheet per year.

Automotive Line 3 is impressive not only by its sheer size, but also by its innovative technology, including many new, patented developments by BWG. The investment consists of three individual processing lines: a preparation line with EDT mill, an annealing line and a coating line. As the principal supplier, BWG’s scope included the complete processing technology as well as the mechanical and electrical equipment, such as mandrels, levelers, shears, coil transport systems, strip joining tools, side trimming equipment, accumulators, the complete annealing furnace with floatation oven, water quench, air cooler and pre-bake oven and the equipment for the cleaning and pre-treatment of the coils.

Of particular note is BWG‘s newly developed EDT skin pass mill, used for the first time for aluminum strips to meet the ever more stringent requirements for surface quality and narrow tolerance strip surface roughness required for automotive quality sheets. During skin passing at high speed, the EDT (electro discharge texturing) structure of the work roll is safely and evenly transferred onto the aluminum strip. For the development of this technology, BWG capitalized on its long experience with similar applications for the steel and stainless steel industries. BWG also built a test rolling mill to conduct basic research and verify equipment design parameters.

The EDT skin pass mill is installed in the preparation line and comes into operation at the beginning of the process chain. In addition to the surface enhancement, strip side trimming and surface inspection functions are completed on this line.

In addition to the state-of-the-art skin pass mill, other new developments by BWG include the newly developed BWG flatness-measuring roll for the calibration of the EDT skin pass mill, a new generation of BWG’s proven Pure-Stretch-Levelflex® technology for optimal strip flatness, a new type of water quench with contactless strip centering, as well as a special strip joining tool that combines a traditional stitcher with a newly developed clinching tool and allows for on-the-fly change between the two.

It is through the use of these successful new technologies developed by BWG that the material and surface qualities of the coils produced on the new Automotive Line 3 meet the highest industry standards and requirements.

Once again, the exemplary cooperation between the HYDRO and BWG project teams contributed to the timely design and supply of all equipement and services to the complete satisfaction of the customer.